There are
reports today of Russian shelling hitting the
Rusanivka neighborhood on the left bank in Kyiv. This area is just south of the
Livoberezhnyi Masyv area where most of the teams (including the US team) were staying at the Hotel Tourist. I remember running along the path on both sides of the canal around Rusanivka (
google maps). There is some worry that the dam at the Kyiv Hydro power plant might be breached, releasing the huge
Kyiv Reservoir north of the city. This would probably do some serious damage to the entire left bank area and spread radionuclides from Chernobyl trapped in the reservoir's sediment. Let's hope it doesn't come to that, or worse.
I've been looking through pictures from that trip all week, feeling nostalgic and worrying about the WOC07 staff still living there. Clem took a really special photo during the middle final. I think a print of that photo still hangs in Clem and Dasha's Philadelphia home to this day. Visiting Kyiv was a unique experience for me. It felt very much like an eastern city trying to face west...about equal parts of both, at the time at least. We had some time for sightseeing and most of my non-O photos are of the beautiful monasteries and orthodox churches, and one statue of a Persian cat near the Great Gate. Also memorable was Mike Smith with a live eagle perched on his arm in Independence Square - site of the Orange Revolution and Euromaidan demonstrations. My heart aches seeing people sheltering in the metro stations under the city.